Taunton water and sewer rate hikes are coming. Here's what you need to know.

TAUNTON — Taunton's water and sewer rates are going up to help pay for over $120 million in needed and mandatory upgrades to the city’s water and sewer systems and wastewater treatment plant.

The five-year plan, calculated for inflation, will increase the average single family household’s annual water bill by around 2% per year or $10 per year.

That's based on an "average" family size of 2.47 people using 60 gallons per day. For them, the annual bill will go from $496 a year in fiscal 2022 to $553 a year by 2028.

On the sewer side, the rates would go up by around 3.5% or $25 a year for an average household. That will bring the annual bill for an average household from $712 in fiscal 2022 to around $844 a year in 2028.

The City Council on Sept. 13 listened to presentations from the DPW and engineers on where the money is going and why these rate increases need to happen.

Taunton CFO Patrick Dello Russo explained that most of the intended upgrades for this five-year plan will get paid for through 0% interest loans from the state, with the revenue from the rate increases immediately covering these loans so no more debt is accumulated by the city.

“Our plan is to pay as we go. After that, we’re putting the credit card back in the wallet,” said Dello Russo.

Where the money is going

For the water rate increase, $31.4 million will be spent on upgrades to the Assawompsett Pond pump station, upgrades to the Prospect Hill reservoir, replacing water meters in the city, installing and replacing new fire hydrants and installing brand new piping for water mains.

Ben Levesque from environmental engineering firm Tighe and Bond explained to the Council that most of Taunton’s water system was originally made up of unlined cast iron pipe, which is prone to massive amounts of buildup of corrosion.

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Twenty-five percent of Taunton’s system is still this cast iron and needs to be replaced.

The city is using $5.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds on the upgrades, which helped lower the water rate increase.

When Councilor Phillip Duarte asked why ARPA funds were being used for these projects, Dello Russo explained projects like the upgrades to the Assawompset Pond pump station and Prospect Hill Reservoir “needed to get off the ground earlier,” before the loans and approved rate increases could be secured.

Russo said these projects are either out to bid for a contractor or have already started because the city utilized ARPA funds.

For the sewer rate increase, $96.5 million will be spent. Of that, $10.5 million is to finish the remaining upgrades to the main pump station in the city, which helps remove raw sewage discharge and minimize overflows. And $6 million is going towards upgrades for the city’s sludge treatment facility.

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The remaining $80 million is going towards upgrades and new infrastructure for the actual wastewater treatment plant.

By the end of the project, the plan’s intake for permitted flow will go from 8.4 million gallons to 10.2 million gallons, a feat meant to accommodate future growth for the city. These upgrades to the plant are slated to be complete in late 2023 or early 2024.

Councilor Christopher Coute praised the approach Dello Russo is proposing.

“I do appreciate the pay-as-you-go approach and not being reliant on debt service,” Coute said.

'Years and years of not upkeeping our systems'

Taunton’s 70-year old, 50-acre wastewater treatment facility needs a lot of work.

Aside from some significant upgrades in the 1970s, and some minor upgrades in 2000, no major improvements have been done to the plant for decades.

A big feat for Taunton was bringing its stormwater and sewage systems into the 21st century. Dating back to the 1870s in the city, both systems were originally interconnected, a combined sewer system, meaning the stormwater system overflowed every time it rained hard, leading to cross contamination and waste discharged into local waterways where stormwater ended up.

An administrative consent order from the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2005, followed by a consent order from the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 2008, both required the separation of the interconnected sewer and stormwater systems.

The city spent $72 million over 15 years to separate its stormwater runoff system from its sewage system.

Clean Water Act violation

Joseph Federico, senior vice president for civil engineering firm Beta Group, who is in charge of the wastewater plant upgrades, explained to the City Council that half of the $80 million being spent on the wastewater plant over the next five years is for upgrades ensuring the nutrient removal meets EPA limits before it is discharged into adjacent water bodies.

The EPA said Taunton was in violation of the Clean Water Act and established disposal limits for nitrogen on its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit in 2015 for the city expelling into the Taunton River, something the city fought in court as the EPA hadn’t established such limits before.

City loses on appeal

Federico explained the case the city presented was the EPA’s tested findings of high nitrogen levels may have had more to do with the discharge into Mount Hope Bay coming from Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, which hadn’t been shut down yet. The Taunton River connects with Mount Hope Bay.

“All we were asking was for a peer review of the science. Our experts were saying now that the power plant is gone, we need new data,” said Federico.

The City filed appeals with the Environmental Appeals Board for the EPA, but was denied each time. In July 2018, a U.S. District First District Court of Appeals in Boston decision sided with the EPA, saying the EPA was allowed to impose limits on the levels of nitrogen.

Regardless of how the upgrades to the city’s wastewater system came to be, officials say it’s a long time coming.

“The upgrades are very necessary. This is years and years of not upkeeping our systems,” said Councilor Jeffrey Postell.

Said DPW Commissioner Fred Cornaglia: “The plan is adequate, but it should have happened years ago.”

This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Taunton: Water and sewer rate increases will help pay for upgrades